The latest Doctor Who Main Range from Big Finish is out now, and has one of the most fascinating premises we’ve seen in recent years. Because the Doctor must change events that might mean his companion blinks out of existence…
Sylvester McCoy stars as the Seventh Doctor, alongside Bonnie Langford as Mel Bush and Sophie Aldred as Ace, in Red Planets:

London, 2017. Except… it isn’t. Berlin, 1961. But it isn’t that either. Not really. Not in the timeline the Doctor knows. Something is very wrong.

While Ace tries to save the life of a wounded British spy, Mel and the Doctor must get to grips with the modern day socialist Republic of Mokoshia. For Mel it feels strangely familiar and ‘right’, which makes the Doctor feel even more uneasy.

Soon, a message from a dark and blood-soaked distant future is on its way… but the Doctor will have to act fast to stop this timeline becoming reality.

And with Ace stranded in an alternate 1961, will saving Earth end her existence?

Writer, Una McCormack says:

“I hugely enjoyed writing this story. It was a more complex Big Finish script than I’d ever tried before, but I was supported hugely by the script editor, Guy Adams, who helped me achieve a four-part story.

“It helped that we shared a love and enthusiasm for Le Carré and other spy stories, which were the main inspiration for this. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a particular favourite. I also wanted something slightly on the feel of the Pertwee story, Inferno, where an alternate timeline is brought to a halt. And of course the centenary of the Russian Revolution was much in the news when I pitched the story back in 2017.”

The story also stars Matt Barber as Tom Elliot, Elliot Levey as Colonel Marsden, Genevieve Gaunt as Anna/ Commander of Phobos Mission, Max Bollinger as Sokolov, and Chris Dale as Mission Control/ Voice of Map/ George/ Television Announcer.
Directed by Jamie Anderson, Red Planets is out now from Big Finish, priced £14.99 on CD or £12.99 on download.